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TEL AVIV – In the immediate aftermath of November’s elections that propelled a once fringe bloc of far-right politicians to the top of Israel’s power, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched an American media blitz aimed at placating his country’s key ally.
“My hands are tight on the steering wheel,” he said in interview after interview.
Around 80,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv on January 14 to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans for judicial reform, calling the move undemocratic. (Video: Portal)
But just three weeks into his tenure, critics say Netanyahu’s far-right coalition has already begun to veer off course — fast-moving measures aimed at weakening Israel’s judicial system and any remaining prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to eliminate . The barrage of initiatives stands in sharp contrast to Netanyahu’s calculated and measured style and proves, said Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul in New York, that he has lost control.
“Netanyahu’s partners know he’s the weakest he’s ever been, so they’re holding him hostage,” said Pinkas, who has received calls from US senators and officials fighting over strategies for dealing with the new administration to find the most far-right and religiously conservative in Israeli history.
The far-right Israeli government has swore in amid a wave of resistance
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, “has no legitimacy anymore; If this government falls apart, there’s a chance he’ll go to jail,” said Yoav Fromer, head of Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of the United States, referring to the ongoing trial of Netanyahu, who has been charged on three counts became corruption cases. The trial, Fromer said, gave outsized leverage to Netanyahu’s extremist religious partners, who have promised to shield him from prosecution in exchange for freedom to pursue their own agenda.
The unofficial quid pro quo has already resulted in significant concessions to Israel’s extreme right and has shown the limits of US influence. According to Israeli media, US officials expressed to Netanyahu their unease at the demands of Bezalel Smotrich, head of the ultranationalist religious Zionism bloc, during coalition talks. But Smotrich and his allies have been appointed to critical and tricky positions in Israel’s security facility, overseeing civil affairs in the West Bank — the disputed territory that members of the radical bloc have openly vowed to annex, in defiance of the United States.
Publicly, Washington has reaffirmed its commitment to its “shared values” with Israel. But it is also tacitly recalibrating its position, telling Netanyahu that he is being blamed for undermining those values - and warning that his ambitions to contain Iran and normalize ties with Saudi Arabia could be hampered.
“My approach is that you, Prime Minister Netanyahu, want to do big things, we want to do big things,” US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides told The Washington Post. “But if your garden is on fire, there’s nothing we can do.”
“Every minute I talk about problems with the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, the [West Bank] outpost, on the phone with the White House is a lost minute when we could talk about other things,” he added, referring to the Jerusalem site that is sacred to both Muslims and Jews and often a flash point in the Israeli- Palestinian conflict was.
Earlier this month, Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right national security minister, paid a controversial visit to the site. The United States became the first country to publicly condemn the move, saying changes to the status quo were “unacceptable.”
What is the Temple Mount and why did Itamar Ben Gvir’s visit fuel tensions?
On Jan. 2, the night before Ben Gvir’s visit, as Hamas called on Palestinian youth to “mobilize,” Netanyahu persuaded Ben Gvir to postpone his trip, according to Israeli media. But his uncompromising base demanded that he oppose “surrender to terrorism,” and at 7 a.m. the next morning, Ben Gvir, flanked by security officials, arrived at the Temple Mount.
“This is what happens when a weak prime minister is forced to put the most irresponsible person in the Middle East in charge of the most combustible place in the Middle East,” opposition leader Yair Lapid tweeted in response to the incident.
Netanyahu’s far-right ministers are staunch ideologists with an ardent following, including many Messianic Jews, who believe that peace in Israel can only be achieved through all-out war.
Tzvika Foghel, an MP for Ben Gvir’s Jewish power party, told Army Radio that even if Ben Gvir’s visit resulted in rocket fire from Hamas killing Israelis, “then, yes, it would be worth it because it would be the last war and after that we can sit back and breed pigeons and all the other beautiful birds that are out there.”
At a United Nations emergency meeting on Jan. 5, US Representative Robert A. Wood said the United States was “concerned by any unilateral actions that increase tensions or undermine the viability of a two-state solution.”
The United States has vetoed more than 50 UN resolutions against Israel over the years – blocking tribunals, sanctions and boycotts over its occupation of Palestinian territory in the West Bank and its wars in Gaza – arguing that Israel’s robust judicial system in the able to hold his military accountable.
But over the past week, Netanyahu’s government has also swiftly pushed ahead with a judicial overhaul aimed at weakening the Supreme Court and potentially allowing the prime minister and his allies to choose the judges to lead his corruption trial. The ploy, legal experts warn, could save Netanyahu in the short term but ultimately harm Israel by undermining the United States’ ability to defend it internationally.
“The Supreme Court and judicial system is our legal iron dome against the world,” Benny Gantz, a former Israeli defense minister, said in a televised statement last week regarding Israel’s US-funded missile defense system.
This defense mechanism is crucial, he said, at a time when international condemnation of Israel is mounting. On Monday more than 90 UN member states expressed “deep concern” at Israeli sanctions against the Palestinian Authority – including halting construction and withholding tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue – after the PA asked the International Court of Justice in The Hague for assistance.
The rise of Israel’s extreme right has brought the focus back to the occupation of the West Bank
The prospect of a breaking American diplomatic shield also coincides with a growing settler movement, emboldened by government promises to authorize dozens of illegal outposts and provide $2 billion for modernizing roads and infrastructure on land that the Palestinians want as part of their future see state.
“As a politician, we should send our people there [all of the West Bank]. This is the land of Israel,” Ben Gvir said last year.
That could complicate US aid to Israel — including $3.8 billion in annual security aid — which will be key to Netanyahu’s broader agenda of curbing Iran’s nuclear program and normalizing ties with Saudi Arabia. Israel and Riyadh have worked covertly to destabilize Iran in recent years, but formal ties would “broaden the circle of peace beyond our wildest dreams,” Netanyahu told the Washington Examiner last month.
Nides, the US ambassador, said the United States has been working to remind Netanyahu that changes to the status quo at the holy sites in Jerusalem and government support for West Bank settlements are undermining his regional ambitions. Washington remains committed to keeping the “vision” of the two-state solution alive, Nides said, but he acknowledged a lack of political will and that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is escalating.
“We will push back if we have to push back,” he said.
Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser, said Israel’s new administration has already undermined shared values touted by diplomats, and that this could damage the “unbreakable bond” beyond recognition.
“The results don’t bode well for anyone,” he said.
Hazem Balousha in Gaza City contributed to this report.